


Bits and Bobs meets Odds and Ends

by Beetletypical



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Beaches, Cuddles, F/F, Humanstuck, M/M, Multi, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17422874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beetletypical/pseuds/Beetletypical
Summary: Karkat Vantas is known for keeping all the bits his friends give him safe, no matter their perceived importance. Dave Strider loved collecting all the little things he finds. But more importantly, Karkat Vantas does not like dave strider (and the universe notes the irony in this)





	Bits and Bobs meets Odds and Ends

Karkat, just like everyone, knew the significance of people intentionally leaving things at your house. Unlike most people,, however, Karkat was very aware of this concept. Sitting on the floor, be pondered why it was such an important thing. Maybe it was a symbol of trust? Leaving things at your friend's house, weather it was a bottle of emergency medication or a small comfort item, surely meant that you trusted them enough to keep it safe. Karkat definitely always kept his friends stuff safe. His room was small and the bed took up almost the entire room, but he made sure to keep the drawers under that bed for all of the stuff that his friends brought. As he sat on the floor he thumbled through the items neatly organized by the likelihood he would have to grab it quickly. 

Johns epi-pens were lodged at the front, in a small cardboard box. Easy to grab, because no matter how much John was an idiot Karkat didn’t want him to die. The small ‘emergency’ draw also contained tavros’ allergy meds, sollux’s pain meds, jades inhalator and a spare pair of vriska’s glasses, incase someone broke them. Again. The draw bellow it,taking up half the length of the bed but only about the height of karkat’s balled up fist only contained towels. Karkat had argued when Equius had first shoved the bundle of towels into his arms, loudly proclaiming that he had “PLENTY OF FUCKING TOWELS IN THE BATHROOM” But he was glad now he had taken them, the towels under his bed still had a faint equius sweat stench no matter how many times he washed it with far too many sent boosters Karkat made the wise decision not to open that drawer. Next to that drawer was a chunky one, with a few dividers. Here he stored the small projects that people left at his house. Nepeta’s sketchbook, as well as a couple of pens and pencils, fit perfectly in one of the slots. Kanaya’s current embroidery hung out in one section, next to the scarf that Rose was knitting. The threads of the two projects would sometimes tangle together but it somehow felt wrong to Karkat when he put them far apart. They weren’t that hard to detangle anyway. The last draw was the largest, taking up the rest of the space. It was less organized, composed of things resistant to breaking and probably wouldn’t be needed in an emergency. Terezi’s chalk was in one corner, accompanied by the swimsuit that Feferi insisted on keeping at most houses she visited a lot. An ‘emergency’ hair dye of Eriden’s was slung in the corner, probably out of date by now, and Aradia’s small, handmade frog push was near the front. He had offered to keep that one in the projects drawer but Aradia insisted it was better off in the one with the random bits and bobs. Most of the space left over was filled with Gamzee’s horns, witch Karkat had always suspected to have some weed snuck in there. He never asked, it’s not like his dad would care.

There was one striking absence. One person hadn’t yet trusted him with anything. Dave Fucking Strider. It didn’t bother Karkat that much, he didn’t need everyone to trust him with something but it sure felt good when they did. What would Dave even leave with him? A mix tape of all Dave Strider’s best hits? A taxidermied crow? Karkat wasn’t sure he wanted either of those. He did want something though. Not desperately, not at all. He wasn’t desperate for Dave to just trust him a bit more, sit a bit closer to him, trust Karkat with just a small part of himself. Karkat rolled his eyes at his own thoughts, suppressing the hopeless romantic within him. It wasn’t even romantic, he insisted to himself as he shut the drawers, it just felt nice to be trusted. He was only sure of a few things- his name is Karkat Vantas, his freinds are idiots and he was not attracted to Dave Strider.  
Karkat scrambled to his feet and observed his room, bored out of his mind, and checked off everything.  
Small double bed? Check. Wardrobe with different coloured wooden doors? Check. A small desk? Check, scratched top and all. His ages old computer? Check. Finally he looked on his pride and joy- a hobbled together bookshelf him and his dad made, along with some of his dads friends. It was wonky, and wobbly but it was his. He would never admit it, but the small alcove of his oddly shaped room where the bookcase and a couple of been bags were shoved was where he felt most comfortable. He wanted to slump down their now and flick his way through an old romance novel, probably one he had read many times before. Maybe, he thought to himself, he could even read one of the supernatural romances that his friends had bought him as a joke. As he began to make his first move towards the corner, his dad called out to him.  
Karkat!” a gruff voice called out from the study “it looks like you have a visitor” 

Karkat grumbled, but he immediately headed out of his room and down the hall. He hadn’t invited anyone around and no one had pestered him. That was super unusual for almost everyone, even John and jade would normally send a cursory message before visiting. Pushing his bubbling worry down he entered the living room and peaked around the corner. His heart pounded a little harder than usual. When he stepped into the hallway he made a resolution: if nothing was wrong he would chew out the person that made him worry until they would never be able to even consider doing something so inconsiderate again. He tensed before he wandered in, ready to be angry at whoever stood at his door if they weren’t in immediate danger of death or mental break down. His chest was quickly taken over with a different kind of tension than was there before, as he looked who stood by his half open door.

Dave strider was lent against the wall shirt off and thrown over his shoulder as heat beat against him from outside. Vantas traced his eyes down Dave’s collarbone, down his toned chest and to the patch of hair that lead down to- he flicked his eyes back up to Dave’s face, hoping that is boggling wasn’t too obvious. His chest still felt tight as he avoided eye contact, not that he could have gotten any through the shades over Dave’s eyes. He quickly blamed that on the binder that was hugging his chest and began to run his mouth at strider.

“WHAT THE FUCK STRIDER! WHY DIDN'T YOU MESSAGE ME BEFORE YOU TURNED UP SHIRTLESS AT THE DOOR!?” His voice boomed around the room, slightly louder than Karkat wanted or expected it to be.

Strider raised an eyebrow and smirked in his signature way, that annoyed Karkat so much. “Why? Your mom didn’t seem to mind.” 

Karkat scowled back at him. Ruffling a hand through his own hair in a blatant show of frustration he swallowed his own voice back a bit. “Dave. Strider. Tell me why you turned up to my house without at least sending me a message first?”

Dave pointed at the mini bus in front of the house, painted fuschia pink. Ah, Karkat realised quite quickly, it’s feferi’s car. 

“Get In loser, we’re going swimming”

Karkat pinched his nose at the top. Dave smirked. Karkat groaned and Dave waved Karkat upstairs. The tension eased from karkat’s chest. He grumbled and walked upstairs to go grab his stuff.

Before long Karkat was squeezed into the technically 12 person minivan. He was on the back where 5 of the last ones on the pick up list were tightly packed on the 4 people seat. Jade was pressed up against the window, staring out of the window and looking for dogs. Next to her sat kanaya, attempting to stay as small as possible. Karkat doubted that was really a problem, as it more or less gave her an excuse to cuddle up to with her girlfriend who was sat between her and Karkat. He learn more heavily on the window than on rose, trying not to crush her. He did look around the minibus, looking at who was sat with who. In front of him Gamzee was lolling with his head on the window. He was on a one person seat, and was lucky enough to be alone on it. Across from him, John was looking concerned as vriska laid over his and terezi’s lap. In front of them, sollux was sandwiched between aradia and feferi, feferi babbling excitedly to them both. On the single seat, across from the renowned pollyam triad, equius sat with nepeta on his knee. He gruffly said something to nepeta that wasn’t clear enough to hear, but was probably some kind of reprimand. That just left the front. They had played safe by packing everyone tightly in the back and leaving the front completely sensibly organized, the front was a 3 seater, with Eridan driving, Dave (probably on his phone) in the middle and Tavros in the passenger door side. 

Karkat grumbled thoroughly the entire trip, but truthfully he was used to it by now. This was roughly the arrangement whenever they decided to go anywhere that required driving. Karkat actually helped to organize it in his own way. He ‘banished’ Eridan to the front so he would stop hitting on everyone, and yelled his head off the first time they went on a road trip and tavros was put in a place where it was hard to help him out so he could get into his wheelchair. He always grumbled whenever he was forced to be crushed at the bad but he wasn’t that angry. Seeing the laughter of his friends made him happy in a way he couldn’t really describe. He gazed out as his friends talked, laughed and complained through the half an hour drive, occasionally joining in with his own gripe. The landscape rolled past and he watched as the small village he lived in dissolved into the natural landscape that karkat much prefered. Hills, country roads and small fields surrounded the bus for most of the journey until they rumbled into and around the small beach town where Feferi, Eridan and Gamzee lived.

They rolled into the drive of Feferi’s small beach house. It was one of the oldest buildings in the area, discounting the gothic church that stood starkly in the middle of the town, its arches both enticing and unnerving at the same time. Feferi had once told karkat that all the houses from that time were knocked down in the 60’s and rebuilt. Her house wasn't as old as the looming church about a 15 minute walk away from it, but karkat thought it was probably victorian (or atleast inspired by it). White painted wooden beams stood starkly against the cobblestone walls. The bottom was decorated with shells, probably feferi’s handiwork, and the house was large but still quite welcoming looking. Last summer they had all stayed there, with feferi’s mother gone for a long time on business. Karkat ripped his eyes away from the house, no matter how many times he went to the place it always amazed him, and followed everyone by stepping inside its cobblestone walls. 

They were soon all crowded around in feferi’s ‘hang out room’, all there bags in a pile in the corner (equius had brought them in, so most were faintly wet and sweat smelling). Feferi was already in her swimming costume, as was Aradia and sollux. Dave did not currently have his on, much to karkats releaf. Considering how his current shirtless state made karkat feel particular feelings he didn't want to feel, he wasn't sure how he was going to react to a trunks only dave. He pushed the very thought of it out of his mind, reprimanding his own mind for thinking such thoughts. Studying the room he saw that nepeta was in a swimsuit with one of equius’ shirts shoved over it. Equius was wearing a similar thing, effectively boxers with a tight shirt covering the top, karkat assumed this was for modesty in some way. Vriska and Terezi both wore very little, standing on either side of a very flustered John who was deliberately looking pointedly in their eyes. Most of the dudes were in their swimwear, with the exclusion of equius, dave and karkat. Jade had a summer dress pulled over hers but otherwise the other girls were suited up appropriately. 

“Are we all ready to go?” feferi asked, her bubbly demeanor cutting through the general chatter of the room, and they all soon moved as a monolith towards the door. 

Dave walked next to karkat. Karkat complained at him about the last book he read, it was terrible and did an awful attempt at subverting tropes. Dave made some remarks about how he doesnt know how karkat would actually take them seriously and showed him some ‘ironic’ memes on his phone. Karkats voice rose just a little bit as dave leaned closer to him, brandishing his meme-filled phone. The sun beat down on them both as they walked to the beach, karkat mentally used that to justify the heat he was feeling on his face. They walked just a little bit behind everyone else, the phone taking up too much attention and karkat almost tripping on several occasions. Whenever he did, it drew unnecessary attention to him and dave, john often shooting a amused but puzzled look and waving his hand to summon them back towards the whole group. Dave responded with increasingly obvious eye-rolls behind his surprisingly appropriate sunglasses.

Sand was soon breaching karkats flip-flops as they arrived at the local beach. He wasn't sure about the beach- sure it could be fun sometimes but it was far from his ideal hang out. He would always sit as far away from the water as he could, normally sitting next to tavros, who couldn't swim, and kanaya, who preferred to sit and embroider. It was usually fairly relaxing to sit with them, the heat breaking though his shirt and thumping against his back, but today he had more to think about. Kanaya, as per usual, stared out adoringly to Rose. She watched her play beach volleyball with Jade, Nepeta and John, becoming a no go for conversation for at least the next 35 minutes. Tavros had decided to join in the festivities today, gamzee gripped onto his wheelchair at the water's edge. 

With no distractions, karkat finally admitted to himself that it was time to have a heart to heart with himself. Karkat flopped down in a beach chair that they had managed to bring along and actually began to think.

Did he like dave? He was definitely friends with him, and he enjoyed his company. But to put it like he would when he was 11, did he like like him? He liked the way his hair flowed over his freckled face and he liked the way his abbs were so *there*. But that was all physical right? Karkat wasn't ashamed to say he liked guys and dave strider was almost the definition of male attractiveness. Karkat lent further into the chair, burying his burning face further into his book to avoid the glares of suspicion. Karkat thought about dave, and how he almost never failed to make him laugh, and how he always got so frustrated when he remembered that dave hadn't given him anything to keep guard of in his house. Karkat admitted it to himself, somehow putting his face further into his book.

Karkat Vantas liked Dave Strider. Karkat Vantas really liked Dave Strider.

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Karkat was fine with liking guys, Karkat wasn't fine with liking dave. Strider was perhaps the straightest guy that karkat ever knew. He rolled his eyes and continued to read the book. He wouldn't date karkat anyway, even if he was gay. Karkat thought that excuse was good enough and finally settled down to his book under the blazing sun, falsely content with figuring himself out just a little bit more.

Karkat Vantas liked Dave Strider, but Dave Strider would never like Karkat Vantas.

On the other side of the beach, near the water, dave strider looked over at karkat vantas with adoration in his eyes and the universe noted how ironic this was.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! this is a new fic and I hope Yall like it! comments and criticism is always appreciated and I would love you forever if you could drop a kudos. the next chapter will be more dave focused so hopefully, it will be a little bit longer


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